Tag Archives: databases

After the election of President-Elect Trump, many people were quick to point fingers at various media organizations that may have contributed to the unlikely election. One scapegoat that has popped up is Facebook, the world’s most popular social media website. The Pew Research Center has recently found that 62% of adults get their news from social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, or Reddit, and at least 18% of adults use social media for the sole purpose of seeking out news “often.”More alarming, the study found that 64% of Facebook users get their news from only one source, which means that many people who rely on social media for news are bound to get stuck in an “information bubble” that only reinforces what they already believe to be true.

Image credit: Pew Research Center

Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook, has already come out against the accusations that Facebook had a major influence on the presidential election. However, anyone who has used Facebook knows that the Newsfeed algorithm tends to set us up with links that we’ll be predisposed to “like.” We follow people who tend to have the same opinions on important topics like politics, civil rights, and equality. We block people who don’t share our views or who espouse ideas that are offensive to us.

The echo chamber effect is one of the reasons why information literacy is so important. “Information literacy” refers to the skills and dispositions that help people identify information needs and evaluate information for reliability, purpose, currency, and authority. In the current political climate, it’s important to hone skills that help you recognize bias in the news. It’s important to be able to recognize the difference between news articles and op-ed pieces on reliable news sources (a skill that Trump has not developed). It’s important find out more about the people writing the news, and looking into the backgrounds of the news sources. It’s important to entertain opposing viewpoints, especially when reading personal blogs or obviously biased writing.

With that in mind, here are some excellent resources to help you find reliable information and evaluate it:

Part of a library’s mission is to provide its patrons with reliable sources of information. These sources come in the form of books, internet, films, periodicals, databases, and many more items that patrons can check out or use in-house. Now, the David G. Richardson Library is adding another reliable resource for the Indian Creek community.

JSTOR is a database housing archival and current peer reviewed scholarly journals, primary sources, and books on a myriad of subjects. According to their site, JSTOR “helps students develop research skills, critical thinking, and information literacy. JSTOR provides students with exposure to peer reviewed scholarly research and prepares them for their future studies, enables teachers to incorporate important scholarly literature into their classes, and provides librarians with a reference resource of over 1,500 academic journals and other content.” If you’d like to browse JSTOR’s shelves or search for specific information on the site, visit www.jstor.org (for access from the ICS campus), or see a librarian to learn how to set up an account that you can access off-campus. If you need help navigating the site, watch a few video tutorials here: http://about.jstor.org/video-tutorials. Happy searching!